At least in recent years, UTEP vs. New Mexico State has never been a blood feud.

Typical of the nature of the game is Donald Buckram's shot over the bow of Aggie safety Alphonso Powell, his old buddy -- and his wife Lauren's -- from Copperas Cove High School.

"He was almost the best man in my wedding, but he plays at New Mexico State so I had to take him off my best man's list," Buckram joked. "He was a groomsman."

Buckram later expanded on that: "We've known each other since kindergarten. We lived on the same street. (Powell and Lauren) had classes together. He came down a few weeks ago and gave my daughter (Breanna) an Aggies hat.

"I put it away."

Good feelings aside, however, this is a game about two desperate teams that need a win for themselves more than they need it for alumni bragging rights. Both teams are coming off humbling losses and the Miners' new defense felt absolutely undressed by Houston last week.

"We have to be more fundamentally sound, more disciplined, play together," end Bernard Obi said. "We definitely need to be more intense to redeem ourselves. We were just overconfident. We had one win and we felt good, we took (Houston) lightly.

"We weren't as focused as the week before."

UTEP had a myriad of problems against Houston, much of which came down to tackling and taking poor pursuit angles.

"We were sitting back and catching rather than attacking," coach Mike Price said.

"We have to tackle better," said cornerback Travaun Nixon, who may have earned a starting spot this week with his strong play against Houston.

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"We missed 30-something tackles. If we had tackled we wouldn't have given up that many yards (658)."

As Nixon and Obi hinted, the focus this week for the UTEP defense was on fundamentals and attitude, not in a remake of the defense.

"We have to play more aggressive," linebacker Jamie Irving said. "We're not trying to think about last week. Last week is over. We're focusing on this week."

New Mexico State had the worst offense in America last year but looked vastly improved in its opener against San Diego State, though it had just 10 first downs in the final three quarters when it converted just one third down. In the second quarter the Aggies had the ball for 3:42 and had no first downs. Still, new quarterback Matt Christian played well and showed toughness as he repeatedly took hits but kept charging forward.

"Time of possession is the most overrated stat in football, but we can't go whatever we went in the second quarter," first-year NMSU offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar said. "We've got to have more balance. I was more disappointed in the second quarter than the second half. There was no continuity because of the second quarter."

On the other side of the ball, a UTEP offense that has been moving the ball, but has struggled in the red zone, takes on an Aggie defense that was poor on third down against San Diego State, but did make a pair of huge fourth-down stops that enabled them to extend the game into the final eight minutes.

"We're coming off a loss but we still have a lot to look forward to," quarterback Trevor Vittatoe said. "This is a big rivalry game so we're looking forward to this. Everyone is really pumped up.

"We feel like this will help determine the rest of the season."

That will be determined soon enough.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 543-6359.